Namita Viswanath

Namita Viswanath is a Partner in the Technology Media and Communications (TMC) practice group at CMS INDUSLAW. Her primary practice area is Technology Law.

She has been recognised as a 'Top Female Lawyer' and 'Top TMT Lawyer' in India, as well as one of the 'Top 15 TMT Lawyers' in Asia by Asian Legal Business. She was shortlisted for Thought Leader of the Year, India and the Middle East at the ALB Women in Law Awards 2021. She has been ranked by Chambers & Partners Asia Pacific, Legal 500 Asia Pacific, IFLR1000 and Asialaw as one of India's highly recommended TMT and Data Protection lawyers. The Women in Business Law Awards 2023 recognised her as the 'Information Communication Technology Lawyer of the Year' in the Asia Pacific region.

She is well regarded for her technology law expertise across all industry sectors, advising domestic and international clients from start-ups to mature private and public companies and investors in various technology-driven and technology-consuming industries on issues ranging from setting up an e-commerce business and outsourcing to data governance and cyber security.

She focuses her practice on software, cloud-based services, artificial intelligence and machine learning, information technology, intellectual property, strategic acquisitions of business units and technology platforms and licensing, electronic and mobile commerce, health-tech, intermediary liabilities, entertainment and digital business, and all forms of related legal and regulatory compliance and policy and advocacy initiatives. While her work primarily revolves around all facets of fintech-related advice, she frequently advises emerging and established companies on structuring their operations to house fintech activities, on new product offerings and regulatory advisory services in the fintech space.

She has also worked on a wide range of commercial contracts, corporate transactions and corporate restructuring assignments, and has advised on compliance under corporate and foreign exchange laws, with a special emphasis within the e-commerce, technology, banking and fintech sectors.

She is at the forefront of data privacy issues in India and is one of the few Indian lawyers to advise on EU-GDPR and the CCPA. She regularly speaks on data privacy, fintech and emerging technology law issues and has authored many academic articles on the subject.

Prior to CMS INDUSLAW, she was associated with the IT and telecom industries from the very beginning of her career, including a stint as a senior in-house counsel at Lenovo, Oracle and Bharti Airtel Limited. Her publications include the India Chapter of Lexology GTDT: Telecoms & Media 2022 and articles on the UK's Proposals for a New Data Protection Reform Bill, International Financial Services Centres and Opportunities for the Fintech Sector, CERT-IN's Directions on Cyber Security, and the Top 10 operational impacts of India's DPDPA.

She is a member of IAPP and ITechLaw and an Advocate in India. She holds an LL.M. from the School of Law, Christ University, Bangalore (2014) and a B.A.L - LL.B. from University Law College, Bangalore (2006). She speaks English.